025.431: The Dewey blog

Piracy

Piracy has been in the news recently, e.g., “Greek Ship Released by Pirates,” “Somalia Pirates May Reduce Ransom Demand for [Saudi] Tanker (Update2),” “Pirates Who’s Who,” and “A Somali Pirate with Historical Leanings Might Scoff at the Outrage: The Lovable Rogue Beloved of Literature and Hollywood Was More Often a Thieving Thug.”

Works on piracy as a crime and pirates as criminals are classed in 364.164 Violent offenses against property, which has the note “Including piracy. . . .”  Examples are Pirates Aboard!: Forty Cases of Piracy Today and What Bluewater Cruisers Can Do about It and Pirates in Paradise: A Modern History of Southeast Asia’s Maritime Marauders.  Because piracy is in an including note and thus in standing room, no further addition is possible. 

Works that treat pirates’ expeditions as seafaring adventure are classed in 910.45 Ocean travel and seafaring adventures, which has the note “Including pirates' expeditions.” An example is Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates.

EPC Meeting 130

The Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee (EPC)* held Meeting 130 at the Library of Congress November 18-19.  The meeting was chaired by Caroline Kent (British Library); Anne Robertson (Australian Committee on Cataloguing) was re-elected vice-chair for another two-year term. 

Prior to Meeting 130, EPC held an electronic pre-meeting, and approved updates to historical periods; modernization of the treatment of radio programs, motion pictures, and television programs regardless of method of distribution; and updates to 510 Mathematics.  All but the last will be distributed to users in early 2009.  EPC also approved, with minor modification, the long-planned updates to groups of people in Table 1 and 305-306—we plan to release the updates in mid-2009.

EPC discussed two sets of updates to Table 2 (Geographic Areas, Historical Periods, Persons)—the conversion of the relocation information and corresponding changes in the reorganization of Scotland, England, and Wales presented in DDC 22; and further updates to the area table for Indonesia.  Both sets of changes require additional consultation with in-country groups.   EPC approved a final round of updates to Table 4 (Subdivisions of Individual Languages and Language Families, for Individual Literatures, for Specific Literary Forms), Table 5 (Ethnic and National Groups), and Table 6 (Languages)—most of the updates will be distributed to users in mid-2009.

In the schedules, EPC approved updates in the following areas: 001 Knowledge; 002 The book; 150 Psychology; 330 Economics; 390 Customs, etiquette, folklore; 400 Language (including the relocation of computational linguistics); 610 Medicine and health; 640 Home and family management; 650 Management and auxiliary services; 660 Chemical engineering & related technologies; 730 Sculpture and related arts; 740 Graphic arts and decorative arts; 750 Painting and paintings; 760 Printmaking and prints; 770.23 Photography as a profession, occupation, hobby; and 790 Recreational and performing arts. EPC also approved updates to the current historical periods in 947 Russia and 968 South Africa. Updates in many of these areas will be released during 2009.  EPC reviewed reports on work under way in 340 Law, and discussion papers on 370 Education and 780 Music. We will be seeking advice from users on a number of topics discussed at Meeting 130, including subjects in primary school curricula, language variations, meals, clothing, musical styles, and literary periods for Galician.

EPC reviewed several research initiatives from the OCLC Office of Research and the Dewey editorial team, plus draft guidelines for classifying photographs for the World Digital Library project—we’ll blog about these activities separately in the coming weeks.

On November 18, EPC held a special dinner in honor of assistant editor Winton Matthews and outgoing member Arlene Taylor.  Winton has indicated that he plans to retire in early 2009—we’ll share the resolution passed by EPC in his honor later on the occasion of his retirement.  Arlene Taylor served on EPC 2000–2008.  The committee's resolution honoring Arlene reads in part:

Whereas Arlene Taylor . . . participated in the development and review of Edition 22 (2003) and Abridged Edition 14 (2004) of the Dewey Decimal Classification, and in the publication of ongoing updates in WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey; . . . focused in particular on the needs of students and teachers of the DDC in her comments; . . . contributed “Teaching the Dewey Decimal Classification System” to a special issue of Cataloging & Classification Quarterly devoted to the DDC; . . . presented “Research in Knowledge Organization” at Meeting 116; . . . participated in the EPC planning retreat, “The Future of the Dewey Decimal Classification,” March 15-18, 2004, at OCLC;  . . . paid special attention to the treatment of groups of people, and in particular prompted improvements to the caption for people in early adulthood and the terminology for children of unmarried parents (the latter formerly “children born out of wedlock”);  . . . Be it resolved that the members of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee here assembled at the One Hundred Thirtieth Meeting of said committee, the DDC editors, and staff at the Library of Congress Dewey Section and OCLC express to Arlene Taylor their deep gratitude and appreciation for her service and commitment to the Committee and the Classification, their regret that she will no longer be one of their number, and their wishes for her continued success and happiness now that she has retired from the Committee.

*Photo at top of EPC at LC on November 18, 2008—from left to right: Beacher Wiggins (Library of Congress), Vice Chair Anne Robertson (Australian Committee on Cataloguing), Welna van Eeden (University of South Africa), Sandra Singh (University of British Columbia), Lyn McKinney (Billings [MT] Senior High School), EPC Chair Caroline Kent (British Library), Andrea Kappler (Evansville Vanderburgh [IN] Public Library), Arlene Taylor (University of Pittsburgh SIS, retired), David Farris (Library and Archives Canada), and Deborah Rose-Lefmann (Northwestern University).

Cooking for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving recipes are popular in U.S. newspapers and web sites in November.  Examples are found at “2008 Thanksgiving Recipes from Newspaper Food Sections,” “Your 2008 Thanksgiving Playbook,” and “The Ultimate Thanksgiving Guide: Recipes.”  The U.S Thanksgiving Day comes this year on November 27.

Works on cooking for Thanksgiving are classed in 641.568 Cooking for special occasions, e.g., Thanksgiving 101: Celebrate America's Favorite Holiday with America's Thanksgiving Expert and Betty Crocker Complete Thanksgiving Cookbook: All You Need to Cook a Foolproof Dinner.   The number 641.568 has the note “Class here cooking for holidays . . .” and the Relative Index entry “Thanksgiving—cooking.”  In the table of preference at 641.5 Cooking, “Cooking for special situations, reasons, ages 641.56” appears above “Cooking specific meals 641.52–641.54”; consequently, works on cooking Thanksgiving dinner are classed in 641.568 instead of 641.54 Dinners.

Unemployment

Unemployment has been in the news recently, e.g., “Unemployment Rate in US Surging,” “Unemployment Up, Even as Economy Sprouts New Jobs,” and “Unemployment Likely to Keep on Rising.”  General works on unemployment are classed in 331.137 Unemployment, e.g., Economics of Unemployment. 

Works with geographic treatment of unemployment are classed in subdivisions of 331.1379 Historical, geographic, persons treatment.  For example, The Rise of Unemployment in Europe: A Keynesian Approach is classed in 331.13794 Unemployment in Europe (built with 331.1379 plus T2—4 Europe as instructed under 331.1379).  Unemployment in Asia is classed in 331.13795 Unemployment in Asia (built with 331.1379 plus T2—5 Asia).  Reconciling Workless Measures at the Individual and Household Level:  Theory and Evidence from the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain and Australia, which treats unemployment in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, is classed in 331.1379177 Unemployment in nations belonging to specific international organizations (built with 331.1379 plus T2—177  Nations belonging to specific international organizations).

The number 331.1379 is a displaced standard subdivision, a displaced version of the standard subdivision T1—09 Historical, geographic, persons treatment; it allows area notation to be added directly to the schedule number.  The bracketed entry 331[.13709] Historical, geographic, persons treatment, with its do-not-use note, indicates where the displaced standard subdivision is located: “Do not use; class in 331.1379.” 

The Manual note T1—093–T1—099 and T2—3–T2—9 Geographic treatment points out: “When area notation from Table 2 is added directly in the schedules, standard subdivisions T1—01–T1—091 can be added without restrictions, e.g., use 365.94405 for periodicals about penal institutions in France.”  Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America is classed in 331.1379730904 Unemployment in 20th century United States (built with 331.1379 plus T2—73 United States plus T1—0904 20th century, 1900–1999).  

Where does [name your favorite computer-related advance] go?

The November 2008 New and Changed Entries (in Word and PDF formats) present numerous changes in computer science and related areas and have been a long time in the making.  Every EPC meeting of the past two years has considered proposed changes to 004-006.  So, in a nutshell, here’s what’s new:   We have provided classes for handheld computing devices, additional network architectures, specific types of databases, and specific types of multimedia systems and have given instructions on the classing of numerous other current computing topics.  We have distinguished between the Internet (with interdisciplinary works at 004.678) and the World Wide Web (with interdisciplinary works at a newly expanded 025.042, which includes subdivisions for search engines and the semantic web, among other topics).  We have provided guidance for classing multifunctional digital devices, updated terminology and examples throughout 004–006, added a centered entry at 004–006, and eliminated the 004–006 Manual entry. 

That’s a lot to assimilate, so let’s look at some of those changes more closely, beginning with the updated terminology we are using to refer to specific types of computers.  The class 004.12 Mainframe computers is now joined by 004.14 Midrange computers, 004.16 Personal computers, and the newly recognized 004.167 Handheld computing devices.   At the same time, lots of digital devices are now being created with functionality that extends beyond basic computing capability.  We have added several notes that give guidance for treating such multifunctional digital devices.  The basic instruction is to class a multifunctional digital device with its predominant function, but to class works that focus on a specific function other than the predominant function with the specific function; we also include a preference rule for devices with no predominant function.  You can check out versions of the multifunctional device note at 004.11-004.16 Digital computers, 621.383-621.389 Specific communication systems, and  621.3911-621.3916 Digital computers; see if you agree with our sense of the predominant function of PDAs and camera phones, for example.

The 005.7 Data in computer systems area is also witnessing a number of changes.  Data mining has been relocated to 006.312.  Expansions have been added at 005.743 Database design and architecture and 005.745 Data warehousing.  A number of database types are being either newly recognized or relocated, including logic databases, deductive databases, web databases, temporal databases, spatial databases, and constraint databases.

Other computing concepts that now have a specified place within the classification scheme include cluster computing, digital rights management, electronic/digital signatures, embedded computer systems, grid computing, multi-agent systems, peer-to-peer architecture, portable document software, service-oriented architecture, specific types of multimedia systems (e.g., wikis, blogs, online social networks), style sheet languages, web servers, and web services; additional concepts occur as Relative Index terms without being present in the new and changed entries document.  Classifiers working with computer science materials will probably find immediate use for the corresponding class numbers.

Following literary warrant, the DDC had not previously distinguished clearly between the Internet, whose home lies in the networking world, and the World Wide Web, the set of hyperlinked documents that can be accessed via the Internet.  While the networking aspects of the WWW are still classified with 004.678 Internet, interdisciplinary works on the WWW have been relocated to a new subdivision under 025.04 Information storage and retrieval systems, of which the World Wide Web is a remarkable example; class-here concepts at 025.042 include digital libraries and Internet literacy.   This new class has, in turn, further subdivisions:  025.0422 Web sites (where directories of Web sites and works on portals would be classed), 025.0425 (Web) Search and retrieval, 025.04252 Search engines, and 025.0427 Semantic web.

In keeping with our usual practice, all the class numbers given above come from the full edition.  When we put together our monthly posting of new and changed entries, all of the changes affect the full edition; often only a relatively few corresponding changes occur in the abridged edition.  This is because many updates to the scheme occur at a level of granularity that is more specific than the abridged edition.  It is telling that these updates to computer science and related areas follow a much different pattern.  Fully three-eighths of the document involves updates to the abridged edition.  This is because institutions using the abridged edition also have need for classes at the level of specificity, for example, of specific handheld computing devices (004 covers hardware not only from a  technological perspective, but also from the perspective of selection and use) and web search engines.  Many of the terminology changes and notes introduced in the full edition have also occasioned corresponding changes in the abridged edition.

Anyone want to wager how soon before we will provide another mammoth update to computer science and related areas of the schedules?

And the winner is . . .

973.932.

Barring the unforeseen, the next period in U.S. history will begin on January 20, 2009, with the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44^th President of the United States.  The updates to Dewey are underlined below:

973.93       2001–

973.931             Administration of George W. Bush, 2001–2009

973.932             Administration of Barack Obama, 2009–

Tony Hillerman

American novelist Tony Hillerman died recently at age 83.  Here is an excerpt from the story in Time:

His numerous best-selling mystery novels about two Navajo policemen, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, portrayed the American Indians of the Southwest with accuracy, color and affection. Hillerman, who died Oct. 26 at 83, was the first popular author to consistently write about the Navajo as fully rounded characters. Over 18 novels, starting with 1970's The Blessing Way, he portrayed the Navajo with good traits and bad, as heroic and villainous, just as novelists had written about people of other races and cultures. He understood that Navajo are not the primitives depicted in old western movies, and he wanted his readers to recognize that they were as complex and sophisticated as the people of any other heritage.

Tony Hillerman won the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Best Novel of the year (Dance Hall of the Dead) in 1974, and in 1991 he received the highest award the organization can bestow: the title Grand Master for lifetime achievement. Yet the honor that brought him greatest pleasure was given to him by the Navajo Tribal Council when they named him a Special Friend of the Dineh (Navajo).

Tony Hillerman's WorldCat Identities page gives an overview of his work, his publication timeline, brief descriptions of his works, notes about which works are most widely held in libraries, and links to bibliographic records in WorldCat.

Individual novels by Tony Hillerman, collections of his fiction, and works about him and his fiction are all classed in 813.54 American fiction—1945–1999 (built with 81, base number for American literature in English as specified at 810.1–818 Subdivisions of American literature in English, plus T3A—3 Fiction, from Table 3A Subdivisions for Works by or about Individual Authors, plus 54 1945–1999 from literary period table under 810.1–818 Subdivisions of American literature in English, as instructed at T3A—31–39 Specific periods).  In WebDewey, the LCSH authority headings “Chee, Jim (Fictitious character)” and “Leaphorn, Joe, Lt. (Fictitious character)” are both mapped to 813.54 American fiction—1945–1999.  Examples of works by or about Hillerman classed in 813.54 are The Blessing Way, Dance Hall of the Dead, and Tony Hillerman's Navajoland: Hideouts, Haunts, and Havens in the Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Mysteries. 

Works about American mystery fiction by multiple authors are classed in 813.087209 Mystery fiction—American literature in English—history and criticism (built with 81, base number for American literature in English as specified at 810.1–818 Subdivisions of American literature in English, plus T3B—30872 Detective, mystery, suspense, spy, Gothic fiction, from Table 3B Subdivisions for Works by or about More than One Author, plus 09 History, description, critical appraisal from the add table under T3B—102–107 Specific kinds of poetry, following the footnote instruction at T3B—30872).  Notation 09 can be added to 813.0872 for works about mystery fiction because T3B—30872 Detective, mystery, suspense, spy, Gothic fiction has the note: “Subdivisions are added for a combination of two or more topics in heading, for detective fiction alone, for mystery fiction alone, for suspense fiction alone, for spy fiction alone.”  By the rule of zero, notation for literary genre at T3B—301–308 Fiction of specific scope and kinds has preference over notation for literary themes, which can be expressed by following the add instructions at T3B—3001–3009 Standard subdivisions; collections; history, description, critical appraisal.  Here is the rule of zero as given in the “Dewey Decimal Classification Glossary”: “The rule instructing that subdivisions beginning with zero should be avoided if there is a choice between the 0 subdivision and subdivisions beginning with 1–9 in the same position in the notation. Similarly, subdivisions beginning with 00 should be avoided when there is a choice between 00 and 0.”  Notation for literary genre at T3B—301–308 Fiction of specific scope and kinds has preference over T3B—31–39 Fiction of specific periods because the following note at T3B—31–39 overrides the rule of zero: “Class specific scope and kinds from specific periods in T3B—301–308.”  Literary themes and literary periods can be expressed at the end of the built number that first expresses literary genre.

Examples of works about multiple American mystery writers, including Tony Hillerman, are American Mystery and Detective Writers and Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers, both classed in 813.08720905 Mystery fiction—American literature in English—history and criticism—20th century (with 813.087209 built as described above, plus 0 from T3C—01–09 Specific periods, as instructed at 09 in the add table under T3B—102–107 Specific kinds of poetry, plus 5 1900-1999 from period table under 810.1-818 Subdivisions of American literature in English, as instructed at T3C—01–09).